A Select Committee of the House of Commons records that the effects of colonisation on the Aborigines of Australia are “dreadful beyond example, both in diminution of their numbers and in their demoralisation”. Sir George Gipps becomes the colony’s governor early in 1838 and later that year sets up the “Protectorate”. He appoints protectors especially in the expanding frontier districts. Their aim is to defend the rights of the Aborigines who are officially British subjects and entitled to British law and justice. The 1837 report suggests the idea of protectors, the reservation of land for Aborigines and proposes the prosecution of those whites who kill or molest Aboriginal people. The Protectorate lasts until 1849. Major cause of its failure is that atrocities continue but in a more subtle manner. (Brooks 1st edit, p4).